


Extraordinary

by Aleigh75



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Canon until the comics, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-06-24 18:54:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19729744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aleigh75/pseuds/Aleigh75
Summary: Dawn is graduating from college, and one guest arrives early.





	Extraordinary

**Author's Note:**

> I know how these two got together in the comics, but the comics always seem to me like the creative team decided to get reaaaaally high together. This is just a quick version of how I'd have liked to see them get together. It's also a practice exercise for myself in actually keeping a story short! As I have previously stated, I suck at titles; this one is from that amazing pep talk he gave her in season 7, which is when I started shipping these two pretty hard... This goes against pretty much everything in the comics except the slayer headquarters in Scotland, because I just love that!
> 
> 7/14/19 Edited to fix their age difference from five to six years because as I went to work on another Dawn/Xander story, their ages were nagging at me, and I realized that the Buffy fandom wiki most likely has an incorrect date for the false birth date the monks established for her. (It says 1986, but when I tried to match that with the clues for her age given in the show, I realized it should most likely say 1987, unless she was a year behind in school for some reason).

_ June 2009 _

“Ugh, no one I know would call at this hour!” Dawn Summers growled into her phone, not bothering to look at the display, since, honestly, only people she knew had this number. 

“Shit...sorry, what time is it?” a low, masculine voice asked. There was a slight pause, then, “Dawn, it’s like...quarter to ten!”

“And graduation is tomorrow! My friends and I celebrated last night so we won’t be hungover for the ceremony. Everyone is leaving right after, so this was our last chance,” Dawn whined, rubbing her forehead. 

“Awww, is our little Dawnie hungover?” despite her raging headache, she suddenly connected the familiar voice with a name.

“I hate you Xander,” Dawn growled, pulling her pillow over her head. “Call back later!”

“I would, but seeings how I’m outside your building, I was hoping maybe you could just buzz me in?” he asked, chuckling. 

All traces of her headache and sleepiness vanished instantly, and she was on her feet and halfway to the intercom beside her apartment door before she realized she was wearing only a lacy purple camisole and a mismatched lemon yellow thong. Hesitating for a moment, she slammed her hand on the button to let her friend into the building, unlocked the door, and raced back toward her bedroom. “Door’s open. Let yourself in!” she yelped into the phone, grunting when he laughed. “I still hate you!” she declared before hanging up, and tossing the phone on her bed. 

Her sister, Willow, and Xander were all supposed to arrive later that day. Much later...which was a deciding factor in her plan to get drunk with her friends the previous night. Despite the fact that she’d been legally able to drink for over a year now, she knew the three still saw her as a child, despite the fact that she was now graduating from college (which none of them had done). She felt irrationally guilty that Xander had ‘caught’ her, even though, of the three, she was probably closer to him than even her sister. Both Buffy and Willow had...drifted, for lack of a better word, after Dawn had graduated from High School in Cleveland, where they had gone after Sunnydale’s collapse. Faith had remained on the slightly less active Hellmouth, supervising the many newly activated slayers who were assigned there. Willow had returned to her coven in England, and, after Dawn’s graduation, Buffy had joined Giles at the new Watcher’s headquarters, which were hidden away in Scotland somewhere. Giles had strictly forbidden any and all Hogwarts jokes...

Despite Buffy’s efforts to convince her to attend Oxford or Cambridge, Dawn had steadfastly refused to leave the good old ‘U.S of A,’ and, after extensive research, had found herself in Boston, attending MIT, which had a remarkably good linguistics program. Giles had arranged for the Watcher’s Council to fund her education, on the grounds that she would go to work for them as a translator after earning her degree. 

Rather than following the others to England, Xander had taken a step to the side. He still helped the Watcher’s Council, but only in the form of helping track down newly identified slayers, and only within the continental United States. He mostly worked as a general contractor (licensed in several states on the Eastern seaboard), and traveled to ‘liaise’ with new slayers between jobs, or in cases of absolute emergency. His primary base of operations was western New York state, which put him several hours drive away from Dawn, but still in the same time zone, so the two had spent countless hours on the phone, or chatting online late at night. At first, they mainly spoke whenever memories of Sunnydale kept one or both of them from being able to sleep. Buffy, Willow, and Giles were all on a frustratingly inconvenient sleep schedule, and neither were inclined to commiserate with Faith. After the first year or so, however, Dawn had called  _ him _ because there wasn’t really anyone else she  _ wanted _ to talk to. And not just about the horrors of growing up in Sunnydale. They’d talked about movies, music, television, then gradually more and more about literature, as they both found more time and interest to devote to books than either would have ever imagined possible in their younger days. 

Despite their frequent communication, however, she hadn’t seen him in a few years. Buffy and Willow hadn’t returned to the US since their last, rather disastrous attempt at Thanksgiving back in Cleveland. Dawn found it easier to just stay in Boston over the holidays, and celebrate with the friends she’d made at MIT. Now that she was graduating, Buffy had insisted that they needed to get the gang back together again. The original Scoobies had planned to arrive at around the same time, later that evening, while Giles’ flight was due to arrive ridiculously early the next morning. Since Xander was the only one driving, rather than flying in, she was a bit confused by his unexpectedly early arrival, especially since Caroline, the woman he had been seeing for the last few months, had made it more than clear she didn’t want him spending any more time in Boston than absolutely necessary. 

Chewing her lip, Dawn stood in front of her closet door, and finally settled on a knee length, cornflower blue sun dress that she knew brought out the color of her eyes. After changing into slightly less obnoxiously colored, pale pink underwear, she pulled the dress over her head and quickly ran a brush through her slightly longer than shoulder length curls, which she’d given up trying to tame shortly after finishing high school. 

“Dawn?” Xander called from her living room, sounding like he was still laughing. “Are you okay? Trapped under anything heavy?” 

“I  _ was _ trapped under a comforter and pillow, but some idiot can’t tell time, and got here eight or nine hours early, so now I’m just trying to find enough makeup to cover these eyebags,” Dawn shouted back, squinting at her face, and settling for a light coat of powder foundation, blush, and some mascara. “Can you start a pot of coffee, pleeeeeeeaaaase?” she yelled before applying a quick coat of soft pink lipstick. Shrugging at her reflection, she fluffed her hair a bit more, then took a deep breath, and opened her bedroom door. For some reason, her stomach was fluttering like she’d swallowed all of the butterflies, ever. Maybe she should have gone a bit easier on the tequila shots the night before...

Finding her living room empty, she headed for the tiny kitchen, and paused in the doorway, inhaling sharply at the sight of his familiar, messy black hair, and the long, muscular lines of his back and shoulders, standing in front of her coffee maker. “Hey,” she murmured, her throat suddenly hoarse. “You’re really here...” she began blinking rapidly as her eyes unexpectedly filled with tears.

“Uh...yeah? Were you expecting the First?” he joked, his back still turned. “I can touch you in a minute if you want. And that did  _ not _ sound so dirty in my head, I swear!” he added, laughing.

Rolling her eyes, Dawn sniffled, and walked over, hugging him from behind. “Yes, because your mind is such a sweet, innocent place, where nothing  _ ever _ sounds dirty,” she teased. “Okay, you’re you...” she declared, giving him a quick squeeze, and absolutely not noticing any of the extremely well formed muscles she came in contact with while doing so. “So, uh...you’re early,” she pointed out needlessly as she released him, and took a step back. “You must’ve left...” she did some quick math in her head, then frowned. “Xander...when did you leave Irving?”

His shoulders tensed, and he let out of a long, slow breath before saying, “Uh...eleven o’clockish?” 

“Last night?!” Dawn gasped, “Why would it take you eleven hours to get here? And why did you leave so-” 

“It didn’t take eleven hours to get here. I took a nap in my truck for a while after I got here. And I think you can guess why I left when I did,” Xander sighed. Finally turning around, he looked her over from head to toe, then slowly raised his gaze back to her face, his remaining eye wide, and his mouth hanging open slightly. “Holy shit, Dawn...” he muttered breathlessly. 

“What?” Dawn asked self consciously, touching her hair and then her face, wondering what could have gone wrong since she’d left her bedroom a minute before. 

“Y-you just look so different,” he croaked, rubbing the back of his neck. “Old. Er...older, I mean. You got older...”

Dawn raised an eyebrow, and peered at him curiously. “Did you think I wouldn’t? I mean, I know I popped into the world at age fourteen, but I  _ have  _ aged fairly normally since then...”

“I mean, you were, what, nineteen the last time I saw you in person?” he asked, looking somewhat sheepish. “Now you’re...holy shit...” he repeated, his voice cracking as he gestured vaguely in her direction. “I just wasn’t expecting...a grown up?” 

“Wow,” Dawn grunted, crossing her arms over her chest, and cocking one foot out to the side while she glared playfully at him. “And Caroline didn’t want to let you go, smooth talker? Shocking...”

“More like she doesn’t want me to come back, actually,” he admitted softly. 

“What?” Dawn yelped, ending the charade of being offended by his nervous (and rather flattering) bumbling. “What happened, Xan?” she demanded, reaching up to pat him on the shoulder. 

“Well, you know how she started acting kind of clingy, and needy after we’d been dating a few weeks?” he asked, avoiding her gaze.

“Yes.” Dawn nodded. He hadn’t told her in so many words about his girlfriend’s irritating behavior, but Dawn had been able to extrapolate from numerous, more benign incidents, and the frequency at which he’d been unavailable to talk since he’d begun seeing the other woman. It was only in the last few weeks...since he’d announced his intention to come to Boston, that the two had begun outright arguing. 

“Well,” Xander began, looking down at his hands, where he was twisting one of her dish towels into a barely recognizable knot. “Shewasjealous!” he blurted quickly. 

“Jealous?” Dawn snorted dubiously. “Of what?!”

“Last night, she called and asked me to come over...” Dawn struggled not to react to this information, but felt her nose wrinkling despite her best efforts. “...and I told her I didn’t want to, because I wanted to get up early to drive here. And she went a little apeshit. Started screaming...uh...stuff,” he stammered, his face turning pink as he ran a hand through his hair, messing it up even more. “Long story short, she said if I came here, we were done.” Shrugging carelessly, he went on, “After I hung up on her, I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to leave early. I only realized somewhere near Albany that I was going to hit Boston at like six am, and I was really tired by the time I did get here, so, like I said, I just slept in the truck...until some jackass woke me up honking his horn at a delivery truck.”

“How could she expect you to miss out on seeing all your friends? The Scoobies haven’t gotten together in literally  _ years _ . That’s not fair!” Dawn declared. “Not to mention the bitching every time we tried to talk to you!” She wasn’t exactly sure how often Buffy or Willow tried to talk to him, but she could imagine the older woman was the jealous type, who wouldn’t let him speak to any other females. Her head would probably explode if she ever saw a picture of Buffy...

“She wasn’t jealous of the Scoobies,” Xander mumbled. “She was jealous of  _ you _ .”

“She...what?” Dawn exclaimed, her heart doing a nervous skipping thing as the butterflies from earlier made an encore appearance. “Why? Doesn’t she know that you, like, used to babysit me?” she scoffed, wincing internally when her voice trembled.

“I was more like a bodyguard. Most fourteen year olds don’t require a babysitter,” he corrected, giving her a rather weak smile. 

“Technically, but you still remember me when I was ten...” Dawn pointed out. 

“We both know which memories were real,” he argued. “And, anyway, I told her all that, and she didn’t care. She said we talk too much.” 

“We haven’t even been talking as much since you started seeing her!” Dawn protested, stomping her foot. She had to admit to herself that her reaction was more from the frustration that the decrease in communication had caused her than an objection to the other woman’s accusation. 

Xander gazed at her for a moment, then smiled sympathetically. “I’ve missed you, too,” he murmured, reaching out to stroke her cheek. “God, I was such an idiot...”

“Huh?” Dawn asked, blinking rapidly as her eyes began to well with tears for the second time in ten minutes. “Well, maybe she’ll forgive you if you go back early tomorr-”

“Okay, at least one of us is _ definitely _ an idiot,” he muttered, barking out a laugh. Before she could react, he took both her hands in his. “She was right, and I’m a moron. I didn’t want to admit it to myself, because I was still sort of picturing you as the kid who’d just graduated high school, but,” he slowly ran his gaze over her again before meeting her own. “I love you.” 

“You...” Dawn blinked. “Wait...what?” she growled. “You thought she was wrong until you saw me? Isn’t that kind of superficial?!” Flattering, she had to admit, but shallow...

“I’m not saying this right!” he exclaimed, waving his hands, and beginning to pace. “I’ve been feeling...things...for a long time. Probably too long, considering the age difference. And I’ve always just tried to ignore it, because I didn’t want you to think I was some kind of creepy perv...”

“I  _ know _ you’re a creepy perv, Xander. What’s your point?” Dawn demanded. 

“It’s not about what you look like. I’ve been in love with you for years. I  _ love _ talking to you. You’re the first person I think of when I wake up, and the last person I want to talk to at night. But I always had you in my head as Buffy’s  _ kid _ sister. Off limits, ya know?” he asked, smiling faintly. “I kind of let myself forget that the age gap is kind of...relative?” 

“Relative?” Dawn asked, her heart skipping a few beats as he took a step closer, his eye darkening slightly. 

“Well, obviously, in the past, six years was a much bigger deal than it is now,” he said, shrugging slightly. “I mean, six years  _ now _ doesn’t matter much at all, right?” he asked, his voice going softer, cracking slightly on the last word. 

Dawn felt a goofy smile beginning to creep over her face, but then remembered a not so minor detail. “You live seven hours away...I’m supposed to stay here, help with the new Council archive Giles wants to set up...”

“Mmm...and no one needs contractors in Boston,” Xander deadpanned, smirking slightly as he took another step closer. “I can move. I will  _ gladly _ move, if you want me to. If you want....me?” he peered at her through his eyelashes, and Dawn decided that the puppy dog look was possibly more effective minus an eye. 

“Am I still asleep?” she wondered aloud, reaching to pinch her left arm. “Cuz this dream seems awfully familiar...” she trailed off, choking back a happy sob as she smiled tearily at him. “I love you, too. I’ve loved you since...definitely since I was really here. Maybe even before that, cuz the monks...they gave me memories of having a huge crush on you before I was even real,” she admitted, her smile widening when he grinned rather smugly at this news. “How weird is that?”

“Those monks were pretty smart,” Xander joked, reaching out to pull her closer, his hands resting lightly on her hips. “Geniuses, even.” 

“You really are an idiot,” Dawn sighed, laughing happily as she wrapped her arms around his waist.

“You love me anyway,” he whispered, leaning closer, but stopping with his lips an inch from her own.

“I love you anyway,” Dawn agreed, rising up on her toes to close the last inch. 

**Author's Note:**

> Anything you recognize probably belongs to Joss Whedon, and I'm not making any money from writing this. Oh, and there's a nod to Rowling in there, too.


End file.
